ANAHEIM - For anyone questioning his right to remain in the Angels' starting rotation after a string of poor outings, Ervin Santana nearly had the perfect response Saturday night.

Santana was perfect into the seventh inning, retiring the first 20 Diamondbacks batters in order before giving up a two-out single to Justin Upton. That was the only baserunner Santana allowed until a ninth-inning walk and stood as the Diamondbacks' only hit in a 2-0 Angels victory.

Santana, who threw a no-hitter at Cleveland on July 27, 2011, joins Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers to throw both a no-hitter and a one-hitter for the Angels.

There have been 18 individual one-hitters in Angels history (six by Ryan). This was the second one-hitter for the Angels this season – C.J. Wilson and Ernesto Frieri combined on a one-hit shutout of the A's on May 22 in Oakland.

"I think we've been asked that and we've given the answer – No, we weren't considering taking him out of the rotation," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said when asked again after Saturday's game if Santana was pitching to keep his spot in the rotation when Jered Weaver returns.

It was a legitimate question as Santana stumbled through his previous four starts, pitching into the sixth inning just once and allowing 23 runs in 20 1/3 innings. That was just the low point of a poor season to date. Even with Saturday's victory, Santana is just 4-7 with a 5.16 ERA and the Angels have lost nine of his 14 starts.

"Not at all," Santana said when asked if he was worried about losing his place in the Angels' starting rotation. "I just came here to pitch. If they make any decisions, they make those decisions. That was not in my mind."

What was in his mind was the need to re-establish the primacy of his fastball. Poor fastball command had been at the root of his struggles, Scioscia maintained. An adjustment was made during his 5 2/3-inning start at Colorado last Sunday and carried over into the game plan against the Diamondbacks.

The way Scioscia described it, the adjustment was more mental than mechanical.

"I think it was his need to pitch with the fastball more in different zones," Scioscia said. "When Ervin is at his best, he can get the fastball painted away from right-handers and get it into their hands. Same with left-handers.

"When he couldn't do that, he painted himself into corners and became one-dimensional. I think you saw him put some things together about the third inning of that start in Colorado when it was really not an easy day to pitch."

Santana established his fastball early against the Diamondbacks, but not always for strikes. He threw a first-pitch strike to just seven of the first 18 batters and only 14 of the 29 batters he faced.

Unlike previous starts, though, Santana didn't stay behind in the count for long. He needed 12 pitches or fewer to retire the side in six of the nine innings and went to a three-ball count just twice before walking Miguel Montero on four pitches in the ninth.

"We really wanted to go out and challenge hitters with his fastball, try to get that 'Strike one' and compete on the mound," Angels catcher John Hester said. "It was kind of ironic – that was the game plan, but he wasn't really pounding the strike zone as well as you'd think."

Santana wasn't as dominant as the results imply. He struck out only five and his total of 102 pitches included a relatively modest 61 strikes. But as he retired the first 20 batters in order, the closest the Diamondbacks came to a hit was Henry Blanco's high fly ball to left field in the third inning. Mark Trumbo caught it with his back nearly against the wall.

It wasn't long after that Hester began to think about what was happening.

"Yeah, it was one of those games that seemed to be flying by, so you start to notice around the fourth, fifth inning that you've had a lot of quick innings," Hester said. "It did feel like the fourth, fifth, sixth innings just flew by. It felt like everything I put down there, they weren't going to hit.

"It was hard not to focus on that (perfect game) because the way he was throwing, you knew he could do something special tonight."

Santana said he was aware of the chance at history "after the sixth inning, yeah." Upton ended it with a clean single through the middle on a first-pitch fastball.

"Fastball, down and away," Santana said. "It was a good pitch."

Santana's struggles this season were compounded by a historic run of bad luck early in the year when he was on the wrong side of shutouts in five consecutive starts.

The Angels' offense didn't do much better Saturday, remaining in a mini-slump that has produced just nine runs in the past five games.

Trumbo collected Saturday's allotment with his 15th home run of the season, a two-out, two-run homer in the first inning off former Angels left-hander Joe Saunders.

The Angels outhit the Diamondbacks, 10-1, including eight hits and two walks in Saunders' six innings. But they couldn't manage any more scoring, stranding 10 baserunners while going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. That has been a problem during the five-game slide from the offense. The Angels are just 4 for 40 with RISP since leaving the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field last weekend.

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